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Afghan interpreter Sayed Shah Sharifi makes new home in Toronto

The moment Sayed Shah Sharifi stepped off the plane at Pearson airport, his life changed. The 24-year-old former combat interpreter for Canadian forces in Kandahar arrived in Toronto last Sunday, after a two-year fight to get to Canada.

Sayed Shah Sharifi, the former combat interpreter for the Canadian military in Afghanistan, says he loves Toronto and declares the Yonge-Dundas Square "really beautiful." (CHRIS SO / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Laura StoneStaff Reporter

Sat., Aug. 4, 2012

He has survived dozens of Taliban ambushes, roadside explosions and sinister visits in the pitch-black Kandahar night.

But as he walks along a sunny strip of College St., admiring the streetcar tracks and staring in bemusement at a car sprouting grass in Kensington Market, Sayed Shah Sharifi has another matter on his mind.

His shorts.

“If I was walking in the shorts in Kandahar City, there may be more than 15 people walking behind me, looking at me,” he says.

“But here, in this city, if you do anything, if you are wearing any kind of stuff . . . nobody tells anyone what to do.”

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The 24-year-old former combat interpreter for Canadian forces in Kandahar arrived in Toronto last Sunday, after a two-year fight to get to Canada.

After delays and rejection, front-page stories by the Star’s Paul Watson and finally an intervention from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he was approved on a visa under a special program set up to protect Afghans who faced retaliation from Taliban-led insurgents.

And while Sharifi sounds upbeat about settling into Canada, of making friends and maybe even one day getting married, he knows he faces challenges in the country he has only known from afar.

“It is like really, really different than Afghanistan. There will be a lot of problems coming for me, but I have to fight the problems, and I have to protect myself,” he says.

“Because if I protect myself from insurgents, I have to solve my problems also here.”

The moment Sharifi stepped off the plane at Pearson airport, his life changed.

For a week he has marvelled at the fact that electricity extends longer than two or three hours a day, and lights up the city skyline at night, when he breaks his fast for Ramadan.

He has taken in the sights, including the “really beautiful” Yonge-Dundas Square, where a stranger took his hand and thanked him for everything he has done.

He’s been on the subway, which he praises as fast, clean and safe, and also reacquainted himself with his favourite coffee from Kandahar Airfield.

“I was always telling my captain and my sergeants and my master warrants that when I come to Canada, please take me to the Tim Hortons coffee shop,” he says. (Next up on the Canadian culinary tour: spicy chicken wings.)

But while the escape to safety is finally over, Sharifi’s journey in Canada has just begun.

For his first two weeks, he will live in a small dormitory-style room at the Ralph Chiodo Family Immigrant Reception Centre, which is run by COSTI Immigrant Services.

With the agency’s help, Sharifi has acquired a social insurance number, a health card and a bank account.

When he leaves the centre, workers in a support program funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada can help with language training, employment workshops and housing, for up to a year.

“It’s very difficult to make ends meet,” says Calla. “It’s not a lot of money, but they have to learn to live within those means and it also is a motivator to help them work toward a goal of employment.”

Initial jobs could include work in hospitality, manufacturing or even helping other refugee claimants, says Calla.

Sharifi’s plan is to move to a shared house in Thorncliffe Park to live with a group of interpreters he knew from Afghanistan who have been in Canada for about nine months.

For the moment, they are his closest connection to home.

“I miss my family because I haven’t been (away from) my family as long as I am here today. It is a really huge distance,” he says, thumbing a black necklace around his neck that symbolizes God’s protection.

Sharifi worked with Canadian troops from November 2007 to March 2010, risking his life in dangerous missions alongside the Canadians.

He says he signed up for the job because he wanted his people to find common ground with Canadian soldiers who were trying to help them. Or, as he puts it, “not to find a misunderstanding to kill each other.”

“That’s why we were working with the Canadians, to save both lives, Canadians’ lives and Afghan lives,” says Sharifi. “To find a right way and bring safety to our province, Kandahar.”

Now that he’s in Canada, he plans to meet up with old friends, including Philip Hunter, who worked closely with Sharifi while serving as a combat medic. Hunter, who greeted Sharifi at the airport, has promised him a trip to Ottawa and Niagara Falls.

More than anything, Sharifi says he is worried about the rules of Canada. He wants to ensure he understands the laws before he sets out on his own.

“I don’t want to be in trouble, because I am trying to be a great Canadian.”

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